1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a staggered arrangement of individual elements that are made of conductive material and are spaced from one another; these individual elements are disposed on an object which is to be detected by radar, and in particular radar having either an individual search frequency or a search frequency band. The present invention also relates to the use of staggered and/or lattice-like arrangements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When detecting objects with radar, in many applications there is the need to detect objects of non-conductive materials in the water, on land, and in the air. Examples of such objects include all types of aerial targets, as well as parachutes, aircraft, liferafts, and dummy targets. In this connection, it is known to load the appropriate objects with electrically or galvanically conducting coatings, to chemically undertake coating of the objects with metallic coatings, as well as to dispose threads of a conductive material in the base fabric of objects comprised of fabric.
However, these measures have the drawback that an insufficient reflection of the transmitted radar beams is achieved, either because coated objects act as surfaces for the high frequency radar beams, and consequently the beams emitted by the transmitter are not reflected to the receiver, rather are deflected in conformity with the ratio of the angle of incidence and angle of reflection, or because fabrics provided with conductive threads to a large extent allow the beams to pass through due to the insufficient dimensioning of the spacing of the threads, or only reflect the beams in the region of individual threads, with the individual threads, as individual elements, acting as a panoramic display for the reflection. It is also known, for improving the reflectivity of objects, to attach to the objects additional components, approximately in the form of so-called mechanical or corner reflectors. However, this has the drawback that the space required for accommodating an additional component on or in the object which is to be detected by radar is not always available, and that mechanical reflectors attached to the object alter the outer contour of the object.
An object of the present invention is to improve the reflection of objects which are to be detected in water, on land, and in the air, especially objects of electrically or galvanically non-conductive material, and to do so without altering the contour of the object itself.
It is a further object of the present invention to present applications for the aforementioned staggered arrangements.